Moorish and Spanish rugs

The Arab conquerors of Spain, or the Moors as they are often called, are believed to have taught the Span­iards and Venetians the art of rug-weaving. The rugs now known as Moorish are made by the descendants of this race. Their leading color is yellow, and in style and quality they resemble the so-called Smyrna rug. Antique Moorish rugs are found in the cathedrals of Toledo and Seville. These are relics of the thirteenth century and have geometric designs.

Morocco rugs are Moorish. Those of modern manu­facture are very inferior. The poorest aniline dyes are used, and it seems hardly possible that the splendid speci­mens of the fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth century were woven in Morocco.

But the rugs in the Sultan's palace at Fez prove this fact, as does the splen­did antique rug in the possession of Prince Schwarzen-berg, at Vienna.